the fiscal cliff. a fiscal cliff special coming up new year's day. i have to go to bed early. too bad. >> sorry. >>> the next hour of "cnn saturday morning" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> good morning, everyone. i'm alison kosik. >> and i'm chp cristi paul. we hope this saturday's been good to you so far. >>> and hope coming from washington with negotiations going on this weekend between the two top senate leaders. cnn radio capitol hill correspondent lisa desjardins is in washington. good morning, lisa. you were on capitol hill yesterday for all of the political action between president obama, congressional leaders. do you think we're closer to a deal? i'm hearing optimism from the president. is that real or is that imagined? >> reporter: right. what do you say? mod deftly or moderately optimistic he said? i think it's for real. people have wanting to get to this point for even a chance at a deal. that's where we are. not a deal yet but there's a chance for a deal. now two senators being the principal negotiators. mitch mcdonaconnell and harry r.